College Hockey:

North Dakota and Minnesota play in the 2007 WCHA Final Five (photo: Skip Strandberg).

It’s one of those series where “you can throw the records out the window,” just like the cliché recommends.

When No. 15 North Dakota and No. 5 Minnesota square off at 7 p.m. CDT Friday and 7:30 Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, records, rankings, and rink location will have little bearing on the outcome; at least not the way you might think.

In the seven seasons of the Dave Hakstol era at North Dakota, the home team in the series has a fairly predictable 12-8-3 edge, with the Sioux winning three of four neutral-site games. Beyond that, the numbers get a bit more interesting.

Whenever or wherever the Gophers and Sioux have met in that time frame, the lower ranked/seeded team is 14-10-3 (.519 winning percentage). In fact, the last two times the teams met with Minnesota holding a double-digit advantage in the rankings, as is now the case, the Sioux swept both series, in 2007 and 2009.

“It’s probably not a surprise,” Hakstol said of the success of the underdog in the series’ recent history. “Rivalries in college sports are great things to be part of and we’re fortunate that we’ve got a good, traditional heated rivalry with Minnesota.”

Like any year during this always-heated rivalry between North Dakota and Minnesota, expect high intensity, big hits and a lot of activity after the whistle blows.

“The atmosphere during those games is something I’ll always remember,” said Minnesota captain Taylor Matson. “The brawls, the big hits. Everything is always more up-tempo and everything is more classified in this series.”

But just for the heck of it, let’s hold on to the records. There is a lot at stake for both teams this weekend and both teams have something to prove.

Doubters might cite the record of Minnesota’s opponents (7-9-2, not including games against the Gophers), but North Dakota presents a challenge Minnesota hasn’t seen this season. Yes, the Sioux have a losing record (3-4-1) but go ahead and throw UND’s record “out the window” for a minute.

“It’s equally important, this weekend, for us as it is for [Minnesota],” UND forward Corban Knight said. “We had some ups and downs early this season but we got a big win Saturday night and we have to build off that.”

“We haven’t really played anyone tough recently but if we beat North Dakota people will respect us a little bit more,” Matson said. “No matter what our record is and what their record is, it’s going to be a battle every shift.”

The Gophers enter the series at 7-1 overall and average 5.38 goals per game, the best in the nation by almost an entire goal. Fourteen of those goals are credited to their nation-best power play (35.9 percent). Minnesota gets a lot of its scoring from one of the top offensive lines in the country: Erik Haula (7-10–17) who leads the nation in points, Jake Hansen (3-8–11) and freshman Sam Warning (3-3–6).

Minnesota also has a fifth-rated scoring defense at 1.75 goals per game, thanks to goalie Kent Patterson, who has played every minute for the Gophers with a .940 save percentage.

This will be a great measuring stick for the Gophers because the Sioux never play dull hockey and are going to bring everything, especially to a rivalry series like this.

The Sioux are going to have to find scoring from guys other than Knight (4-6–10) and Danny Kristo (4-8–12). The defense, which was thought to be the strength of the Sioux, must improve, and the goaltending will come around with proven goaltenders — Aaron Dell (.843 save percentage, 3.47 goals against average) and Brad Eidsness (.895, 3.31).

“It’s a huge rivalry but we have to remember that there’s four points out there,” said Knight. “I heard about it even when I was playing in juniors, the North Dakota/Minnesota rivalry. It’s a lot of fun out there and I’m privileged to be a part of it.”

“There’s something different about the North Dakota atmosphere,” said Minnesota assistant captain Jake Hansen. “There’s no series that gets you more pumped up than playing North Dakota. We don’t like each other.”

CC has big test this weekend

Colorado College’s Joe Howe has the nation’s best goaltending numbers in the two important categories, but he’s played only half the amount of games compared to a lot of the country’s goalies. Nebraska-Omaha will test Howe’s .964 saves percentage and 0.90 goals against average this weekend in Omaha.

The Mavericks are led by their top line of Matt White (3-9–12), Terry Broadhurst (7-4–11) and the addition of Alex Hudson (2-3–5 in four games) upon his return from a suspension that kept him out the first four games of the season.

That line has 12 of the 24 goals scored by UNO this season, but the Mavericks offense needs to diversify this weekend — and this season — for UNO to be successful.

The Tigers scorers are ready to break out after two bye weeks and a trip out East in the first four weeks. Jaden Schwartz, Rylan Schwartz and Scott Winkler have six points each through four games.

WCHA draws show up three NHL teams

Value City Arena at Ohio State of the CCHA has the largest capacity of any NCAA hockey arena at 17,500 but the WCHA has the next four biggest. CenturyLink Center in Omaha has a capacity of 15,959, followed by Wisconsin’s Kohl Center (15,237), UND’s Ralph Engelstad Arena (11,634) and Mariucci Arena (10,000).

That brings us to a little nugget USCHO.com reader Vic Beradelli emailed us this week: the attendance after six games this season at the Ralph (10,754) and at the Kohl Center (10,699) is better than the six-game attendances of the NHL teams in Columbus (10,113), Phoenix (10,012) and Dallas (9,671).

The averages of those NHL teams fill only a little more than half of the respective arenas.

On the collegiate end of this interesting bit is proof of how popular the game is the further west a college hockey fan travels.

Ten WCHA arenas rank in the top 20 in capacity and they’re near full on Friday and Saturday nights more often than not.

Pioneers seek to be quicker out of gate, stay out of the box

Adam Murray’s performance as caretaker of the goaltender position until starter Sam Brittain’s January return from knee surgery was seemingly the Denver Pioneers’ only question mark heading into this season.

But a couple of trends have hurt the Pioneers in the early going, such as difficulty jump starting their offense early in games and getting into penalty trouble.

In Denver’s 10-2 win over Minnesota State on Oct. 22, for example, the Pioneers were called for six consecutive penalties in the first nine minutes of the third period.

Although the outcome was no longer in doubt, Denver coach George Gwozdecky, perturbed nonetheless, called a timeout in which he chose to step off the bench and onto the ice to deliver his message.

“At the second intermission, we’re up 7-0 and I don’t think either team wanted to play the final period of the game,” Gwozdecky said last week. “We came out and we got lazy, we got sloppy, we started taking penalty after penalty and those are things that none of [the coaches] will stand for.

“All of a sudden it got a little too loose so I just decided it was probably time to be able to say ‘OK, gentlemen, I need to get in front of you, we may need to make eye contact, and I need to give you my thoughts as to how things are going. This is not going to be a two-way discussion, this is a one-way discussion,’ and so we had that discussion and we played much better after that point.”

But in losing and tying at Michigan Tech last weekend, the Pioneers scored just four times in the series while surrendering three power-play goals. Just one of Denver’s goals came in the opening period, meaning the Pioneers have scored first-period goals in just three of their six games.

Although Gwozdecky expects a few players “whose sticks have gone cold” to come around eventually, the penalties remain a concern.

“There have been times where we have cheated defensively and, as a result, we’re getting caught out of position and we’re having to scramble,” said Gwozdecky. “We’ve taken some poor penalties that in some cases aren’t even leading to scoring chances.”

Gwozdecky hopes Monday’s physically demanding practice addressed some of the issues his team has been dealing with.

“Some of the things that we saw from our team [against Michigan Tech], especially on Friday night, were not the things we usually see from our team,” said Gwozdecky. “We tried to make some adjustments, not only in effort but in attitude as well.

“I think they were able to survive [the rigorous practice] and understand that it’s that type of effort and execution that is going to allow us to at least give ourselves the best chance to be successful.”

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish

Goaltending concerns have dogged Minnesota-Duluth in the early going this season. Starter Kenny Reiter lugged a 3.31 goals against average and .875 save percentage into last weekend’s home series against Bemidji State, while his backup, Aaron Crandall, allowed five goals on 23 Notre Dame shots in his only action of the season on Oct. 8.

When Reiter allowed goals on BSU’s first two shots on Friday, it had all the makings of a long weekend for the Bulldogs.

In fact, just the opposite was true.

“They scored on a good play and a bad bounce, just two bad breaks for us. I try to stay calm, so I wasn’t going to dwell on it,” Reiter told the Duluth News Tribune‘s Kevin Pates after Friday’s game, a 6-2 UMD win. “We were playing well, and we knew if we stuck with it we’d be OK. We took care of the puck after that, and they didn’t see much again until late in the game.”

As it turned out, the goals would be the final shots to elude Reiter, who blanked the Beavers the rest of the weekend on the way to earning his seventh career shutout in Saturday’s 1-0 win.

“Bemidji didn’t get many good opportunities. We cleaned up things defensively and ultimately got the result we wanted, a win and a sweep,” said Reiter, whose 38 saves in 40 shots in the series might have earned him player of the week honors had it not been for a couple of other stellar performances last weekend.

Players of the week

Offensive: Milos Gordic, Michigan Tech sophomore forward

Gordic, whose 15 goals last season led the Huskies, saw his first action of the season on Friday upon his return from injury. Not eager to relinquish MTU’s goal-scoring crown, Gordic picked up where he left off against then-No. 2 Denver, registering a hat trick in his debut and adding another goal for good measure on Saturday. The four goals tie Gordic with Brett Olson for the team lead.

The two are each repeat winners in this category. Patterson was honored Oct. 11 after back-to-back shutouts of Sacred Heart to open the season. Robinson was selected the following week for his pair of overtime wins over Wisconsin.

Robinson denied 61 of 65 Denver shots on goal last weekend to help the Huskies to a win (7-2) and a tie (2-2) against the Pioneers at MTU’s MacInnes Student Ice Arena. His 4-1-1 record, 2.28 goals against average and .922 save percentage have been critical to the Huskies’ 5-2-1 start.

Patterson rebounded from a 5-4 loss to Vermont on Oct. 23 to earn his fourth shutout in eight games this season on Friday in Minnesota’s 5-0 win on the road over Alaska-Anchorage. He followed that up with a 3-1 win on Saturday and stopped 48 of 49 shots on the weekend to raise his record to 7-1-0 with a 1.74 goals against average and .939 save percentage.

Rookie: Ryan Faragher, St. Cloud State freshman goaltender

Replacing the injured Mike Lee, Faragher made 44 saves in his WCHA debut and shut out North Dakota 4-0 in Grand Forks. He followed that up with 23 saves in a 3-1 loss to the Sioux on Saturday. Faragher tied a school record on Friday, making 24 saves in the second period alone.

Against the rest

WCHA teams are a combined 19-13-4 (.583) in 36 non-conference games. Conference teams are 7-0 against Atlantic Hockey, 4-6 against the CCHA, 3-2-1 against ECAC Hockey and 5-5-3 against Hockey East.

Between the dots …

Michigan Tech’s rise to No. 16 in this week’s USCHO.com NCAA Division I Men’s poll marks the Huskies’ first foray into the top 20 since they were ranked No. 15 in the Oct. 24, 2007, poll. … Faragher is expected to start both games for St. Cloud State in its home series with Wisconsin as Lee has not practiced this week while Huskies junior defenseman Tim Daly is likely out for the weekend as well due to flu symptoms. … Wisconsin sophomore forward Mark Zengerle jumped out to an early lead in the WCHA scoring race with 10 league points (4-6–10) after a five-point weekend (2 goals, 3 assists) against UNO last week. … Alaska-Anchorage is the league’s only idle team this week while Bemidji State travels to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., to face No. 11 Lake Superior State in the lone non-conference series of the weekend involving a WCHA team.

USCHO covers the WCHA all week long on the WCHA Blog, with weekend recaps on Monday, picks on Friday, and updates during the week.

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.

WCHAlover

Goofers expose the Sue’s weak goalies 4-1, 3-0

jmsptrk

I like your thinking. I can tell you’re intelligent.

nogofer

Do you two want to be alone?

jmsptrk

How’d the weekend treat you?

nogofer

Saw good gofer hockey, saw and read from idiot gofer fans. Rodents won. Sioux had them on Saturday and let it slip away. This is a season, not a series. See you in GF at the best hockey rink non the planet.

jmsptrk

that will have to suffice for you for now, won’t it? ha.

nogofer

I’ll let you have the last word…

jmsptrk

That’s OK. Gophers already did.

nogofer

Series, not season… See you in GF…

Anonymous

You mean the reigning WCHA goaltending champion?

Grimaldi and Kristo remind everyone why Patterson spent his time backing up Alex Kangas not so long ago. Blood knocks a few promising rookies around.

If your rodents are as talented as you are clever, they should make the final 5 this year! ENJOY

Goldy Owns You

I’m expecting Hakstool to send out his Goonsquad this weekend, since the Flying Spoo are obviously slower and less talented than this years’ Gopher squad and these games could get out of hand quickly with the offensive firepower Minny has. Keep your heads on a swivel boys! Hopefully none of NoDak’s cheapshots results in any serious injuries.

collegehockeyfan

keep the heads up, they wont get hurt! Wehrs….

SUEH8TER

TYPICAL SUE CRAP. THE HIT ON WHERS WAS WITH INTENT TO INJURE AND YOU RUBES THINK IT IS FUNNY. DON’T WORRY, THE GOPHER’S WILL HAVE THEIR HEADS ON A SWIVEL. THEY KNOW WHAT THE GOON SUE ARE ALL ABOUT. ESPECIALLY THIS YEAR WHEN THE SUE ARE OUT GUNNED!!!!!

heads up

So you are telling me that Wehrs didnt have his head down?…….both times?

Sioux2b07

Ok so I am about as unbiased as it gets with going to UND for undergrad and the U of M for grad school. That is crap about calling the Sioux goonsquad, last time I checked UND is the team that has been losing their players to cheap shots i.e. Robbie Bina and Chey Genoway. UND plays a old style physical brand of hockey which isn’t seen much anymore so now when you do see it you assume that it has to be cheap? The Gophers are also starting to play more physical if you haven’t been watching them or didn’t notice because they have been up big against inferior teams so they didn’t have to play physical. It will be a good hard physical series which I am looking forward to.

SUEH8TER

SUE FANS HAVE ALWAYS HAD A PROBLEM TELLING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHYSICAL HOCKEY AND GOON HOCKEY. YOU TOOLS PLAY GOON HOCKEY!! BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO. I WISH YOU WOULD LEARN IT!!!!!!! GOPHERS SWEEP!!!!!!!!

Astrocyte

Everyone hates you.

SUEH8TER

OUCH, MY FEELING ARE REALLY HURT!!!!!!!!

Siouxbetcha

The Sioux play mens hockey. The Goofs play womens hockey. Last I heard, checking was still a part of the game.

SUEH8TER

THE ELBOW THAT SMABY IS THROWING IN THE PICTURE TELLS IT ALL. AND ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE, LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOON HOCKEY AND PHYSICAL HOCKEY. THEY WE CAN TALK. UNTIL THEN, SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siouxbetcha

You left your caps lock on again tough guy.

SUEH8TER

JUST FOR YOU CRY EYES!!!!!!!!

Undsioux

Penalties and minutes this year: Gophers – 58 for 15.88 per game Sioux – 40 for 10.00 per game. Sioux, no majors. Math says the Goofs have a few. I’m sure you’ll have some lame reasoning for this fact. Like seeing an elbow on a follow-thru of a check in the aforementioned picture. And this doesn’t include at least ten diving calls the Gophs should have had called against them. Biggest wimps in all of college hockey.

Phoenixfyre1313

penality minutes only refer to the penalties that get called. Most of the time it is the stuff that doesn’t get called. Also these teams have not played each other this year so that really means nothing. And regarding your whimp comment, an elbow on the follow-thru of a check is still an elbow and still a penalty, but I do understand that concept escapes the No Dak players and fans. I am happy to say that out players don’t start fights in the handshake line that is the true sign of a whimp!

nogofer

And yet the goofers get more penalties and dq’s than the Sioux… Last night the rodents deserved to win, and they deserve fans far superior to your ilk…

Guest

Best weekend of hockey, Sioux-Gopher series!

Anonymous

The Sioux are bush league.. Canadian goons and Minnesota kids with a chip on their shoulders after being passed up by the Gophers.

guest

Goldy the great lol where was he at the final five last year playing gold with the rest of the team??…. o and by the way UND has more national championships then all the MN college hockey programs put together. Thank you have a good night

Anonymous

Hold your tongue Guest… Have any of these championships occurred this millennium? You can go back to your basket weaving now.

nogofer

The Sioux have the winning record verses the rodents this century.

jmsptrk

Thank you for that kindergarten logic — I guess we know when you dropped out of school to work on the farm.

P.s. Gopher football has more national championships than Florida, Miami and Nebraska, so they must be better at football right? Thank you and have a good night.

nogofer

I know you post on many sites, please pay attention, this is the definitive college hockey site. No one here cares about football (i.e. your rodents or Vikings)…

jmsptrk

weak. way to completely sidestep the obvious shortcomings of your argument. although, it’s not like i expected any higher level of thinking from a sioux fan than that. like you in life, you’ll have to try harder.

nogofer

It is you who try to introduce arguments that mean nothing, re football championships, it doesn’t take much to out-think the rodent-faithful… I would love to enlighten you to your inferiority, as in 7>5, more titles to a school one-fifth the size, low crime rates, glorious hunting, a state with a budget surplus that could feed and finance your liberal mess… But, alas, you may never comprehend your doom. Therefor, I’ll leave you as I found you. On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin…

Jaturenne

The Gopher-No Dak penitentiary game will depend on which stipped flunky Mcleod sends Campion or Shepperd. They are both good for allowing a bunch of cheep shots by the criminals from Grand Forks. The best thing about the Bif Ten Hockey conference is we wont have to see this disgusting officiating that Mcleod as alowed to destroy this conference.

siouxfan

So far every statement I’ve seen here is stupid. Big time sioux fan here . . .gophers are having a great start to the year and it is refreshing to see them be competitive after the last couple of years, sioux are starting out slow (what else is new). tonight is going to be a great game between to tough teams. And lets be honest both of these teams throw their fair share of cheap shots and hard hits. looking forward to some good hockey this weekend — SPLIT gophers 5-1 sioux 3-2

Kolin

Ok, so I’ve read all the hate between you guys and I have to say, it’s slightly annoying and slightly entertaining. I’m a badger fan myself, so I have a bias against both teams, but I can’t resist good hockey, and that’s what this weekend will give.

Here’s the deal: In my eyes it comes down to two things this weekend.

1. The gophers haven’t had a real test yet this year. Here is where they can prove themselves as a team that deserves the No. 5 right now.

2. The souix always come out of the gate slowly, and have had early season losses to BC, a sweep at Wisco, and a loss to Saint Cloud St.. This is a chance for the souix to step it up. Their goaltenders have not been what they were last year, which has hurt them, but if they settle in and play North Dakota hockey, they can walk away with a series split.

I think NoDak won’t see what’s comming tonight, but they can get it done on saturday. Series split: 5-2 Gophers, 3-2 NoDak

Thefightingman

It is kind of funny to think that the real WCHA teams would have supported UND before all this NCHC crap and the boring name debate in a game with the Gophers or Wisconsin after the Big 10 Hockey announcement. Now, it is more like karma coming back at them and the Gophers are the lesser of the two evils. Can’t UND just leave the WCHA this year, call themselves independent, and then we can read about teams who make real actual hockey news during this year’s season?